Eight years after favor asked, George W. Bush Center becomes a reality

1/1

Tom Fox/Staff Photographer

Former Commerce Secretary Don Evans, at the George W. Bush Presidential Center recently with former Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, serves as board chairman of the George W. Bush Foundation. The foundation raised more than $500 million to build the Bush Library complex and launch programming.

George W. Bush, fresh off winning a bruising presidential re-election campaign in 2004, approached Commerce Secretary Don Evans that year at a White House Christmas party with a favor in mind.

Bush told his longtime friend that it was time to start thinking about a presidential library. With the Midland oilman set to retire from his Cabinet post, Evans recalled, the president asked him, “Would you mind being responsible for that?”

“You bet,” Evans remembered saying. “I would be delighted to do it. I would be honored to do it.”

The George W. Bush Presidential Center opens to the public Wednesday, the culmination of more than eight years of planning and discussion that stemmed from that casual conversation.

Visitors will relive key presidential decisions through documents, artifacts and interactive exhibits. They will walk through a 15-acre park that mimics a Texas prairie. And they might buy a Bush bobblehead doll or some other memento at the gift shop.

The finished product — formally dedicated Thursday in front of thousands of Bush supporters, along with the four other living U.S. presidents — exists in large part because of Evans’ leadership when the Bush Center was merely an idea.

He led the site-selection team, which in 2008 picked Southern Methodist University. And Evans serves as board chairman of the George W. Bush Foundation, which raised over $500 million to build the complex and launch programming.

“We all had big dreams,” said Evans, who lives in Midland again. “But I would say this probably exceeded our dreams.”

Two major questions

The Bush Center — with its library, museum and policy institute — has morphed well beyond that partnership. The National Archives and Records Administration runs the library and museum, while the foundation still operates the institute and other parts. But Evans charted the Bush Center’s course early on, especially as he worked on two major questions: How to realize Bush’s vision for a policy institute as part of the center? And where exactly to put the complex?

The answers proved to be related.

Bush has spoken often since leaving the White House about how he’s finished with politics, but not policy. And in his preliminary discussions with Evans, the president zeroed in on a policy institute focused on freedom.

“He wanted to think beyond the museum and library,” said Evans, also chairman of Bush’s 2000 presidential campaign.

Bush outlined a place that would feature scholarly thought with a more results-oriented approach. A university campus seemed a natural choice. And Bush and his wife, Laura, stressed that they wanted to be personally involved with what would become the George W. Bush Institute.

“If they were going to spend a lot of their time there, they wanted it to be close,” Evans said.

The site-selection committee — which included Evans, Bush’s brother Marvin, Bush’s chief of staff Andy Card and Ambassador Craig Stapleton — weighed those considerations and the fact that the Bushes planned to make their post-White House home in Dallas. And while several schools and the city of Arlington showed interest, the panel narrowed its focus to SMU, the University of Dallas and Baylor University.

Strong proposals

Evans praised all the proposals, saying the University of Dallas and Baylor had “wonderful land” available. He brushed aside criticism that SMU’s 23 acres was too small by comparison, noting that the complex features lots of open space.

“Once you get to a certain size, you’ve got enough land to work with,” he said.

But Evans said SMU won out because of three main reasons: It is a “world-class university,” counting Laura Bush as a graduate; Dallas is a global city; and the campus is a few miles from the Bushes’ home.

That last fact has already proved vital, Evans said, as the Bushes have jumped into the institute’s work on everything from women’s rights to education reform to global health.

“That’s part of the magic,” he said. “People like to work alongside a former president and first lady. That in and of itself is the main attraction when you’re looking for scholars and fellows.”

To post a comment, log into your chosen social network and then add your comment below. Your comments are subject to our Terms of Service and the privacy policy and terms of service of your social network. If you do not want to comment with a social network, please consider writing a letter to the editor.